The Case of the White Lady
by EK
Summary: Oneshot. Ghosts, electric blasts, hairpieces, hot spring resort. And a major misunderstanding.


Hiya. This is dedicated to sapphi-chan, who once again has inspired a crazy GB story. I'm not sure if this has been done before, but if it has I swear I am not copying old work. I hope the dialogue does not confuse you.

Happy New Year to all of you, and thanks for reading this oneshot.

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Scary movies have always been a favorite weapon utilized by females. A scary moment gave a female legitimate reason to wrap her arms around a male's arm.

This was not Natsumi's intention when she offered that she and the GetBackers watch a new popular scary movie. She just wanted to see it, and did not want to watch it alone. She did not expect that it would be Ginji who would be cowering, his large hands wrapped around her slender arm, as the woman in a white dress floated along the middle of the hall, making a man jump from the third floor window to his death.

All the same, all three survived to see the end of the movie. Natsumi reviewed the movie as pretty good, Ban remarked that it was not as frightening as the first movie of the series. Ginji could not be reached for comment.

Natsumi reminded them about a reservation she had for the hot springs, starting the next day. Unfortunately, her two friends suddenly could not go with her. Because the reservation had already been paid, the friends agreed that Natsumi could take two others in their place.

"So, are you guys free tomorrow?" Natsumi asked. "We can really go to the hot springs for the weekend?"

"Of course we'll go, Natsumi-chan!" Ban replied happily. "Besides," he added and frowned, "we don't have a job right now."

Natsumi clapped and smiled, then stopped. Poor Ginji was hiding behind Ban, and looked from side of his back to the other. "Ban-chan, are you sure there are no ghosts right there?" and he pointed at a dark corner.

"It was just a movie, silly! Don't worry about it!"

"But Ban-chan, who knows?"

Sometimes Ban still forgot that Ginji's childhood had been far from ordinary, even more extraordinary than his had been. Movies, while not new, were still unusual. The virtual might be as true as the actual.

…………………………

The trip to the hot spring resort was uneventful. This was mostly because Ginji kept a close on the road for anything that might just pop out and scare Ban and make them crash and send the car off a cliff.

"Ginji-san, it's morning," Natsumi said kindly from the back seat of the little car. "The ghosts only appear at night."

"But there's this lady that showed up to the handsome guy, and it was the middle of the day…." Ginji kept looking out the window. "So the guy ran over the lady and crashed onto the mountain tunnel…."

"Oh, yeah, that's right," Natsumi sighed. "In the movie…"

When they got to the resort, Ginji kept close to Ban, constantly looking past the trees and at the corners. Natsumi could not help but giggle at him, bobbing his head behind his friend.

Suddenly he gave Ban's shirt a little tug. "She's here!"

"Of course, Natsumi's here, she has our money!" Ban answered.

"No, no. The lady in the white dress. She's here, too! Look!"

Ban did look, but only saw other customers walking in and out of the dining room and the hallway. "Stop pulling my leg, Ginji." He took the keys to their room from the manager. He walked to their room, his partner still clinging to his shirt from behind.

All the concern about a ghost stopped when they reached their bedroom. It was simple yet elegant. The futons were softer than they expected. The rest of the resort was also quite a sight, and Ginji was kept occupied just looking around for a while.

After dinner and a few games of table tennis, the boys decided it was finally time to try the baths. Ginji offered to run ahead and reserve two lockers for them, while Ban went back to the room to get their things.

Everything seemed fine, when Ban arrived. From a little window separating the main area from the baths, he saw his friend was already getting out of his clothes. So he went in as well and talked to the receptionist.

Suddenly, Ginji ran out of the locker room to where Ban was still getting towels. "Ban-chan," he kept poking and poking him. "Look, look! Over there!" He finally pulled him by the hand and pointed to the far end of the locker room. "She's over there!"

Ban shrugged and obliged. He went to the corner and looked over the area. "Ginji, there's nobody here except us."

"She's here! The ghost! Maybe she just disappeared when you came!"

"Nonsense!"

"But I swear! I saw her! The lady in white with long hair! She was floating there just a minute ago!"

Ban gave a little whack. "If you're ready, go on and get in the bath, and stop bothering me."

"Okay." Thus, Ginji went.

He returned five minutes later, tugged at Ban's shirt and pulled him to follow. "I'm not making this up, Ban-chan! I saw her! There at the bath! She was walking!"

Ban sighed and followed. But when they got to the bath, once again, there was no one else there. "Alright, Ginji, what did this lady look like?"

"She was shorter than the lockers, she was wearing a white robe tied in front, her hair fell to her knees and the hair was in front of her face," Ginji said. "And she was floating on air!"

"Maybe it's just one of the other lady customers here, silly! Now stop thinking about that movie and let's have a nice dip!" Ban harrumphed and went into the water.

Ban asked Natsumi if she was aware of a ghost in the hot springs, or if she had seen a woman walking around with a white bathrobe. The girl replied in the negative to both questions. He just told her how scared Ginji currently was about nothing, and said good night. According to their arrangement, Natsumi stayed in a smaller room by herself, while the boys stayed at the room originally reserved.

There were plenty of sounds that night. People moving in and out, things brought in and out. There were enough to keep poor Ginji from sleeping, even at midnight, even after Ban had already managed an hour ahead of him. "Get some sleep, scaredey-cat…" he murmured.

Ginji kept shaking. "I can't….what if she comes to get me?"

"Seriously, if she wanted to get you, she would've done that in the cinema last night," he teased.

Ginji sat up and huddled.

"That was a joke, Ginji, a joke!"

He stuck out his lower lip and sulked. "What if it happens for real?"

"It won't, now go to sleep!" Ban threw the blanket over himself.

He was about to fall asleep again when he felt many furious and painful pats over his shoulder. "Ban-chan, Ban-chan, Ban-chan!" his partner whispered in a panic. "Her hair, her hair! It's on our floor! Ban-chan!"

Ban groaned and looked to where he was pointing. This time Ginji was not telling a lie; there was really a good lot of long black hair going past the wall into the next room. And it was moving.

"It's the lady in the white dress! She's in the next room! Ban-chan, Ban-chan, what are we going to do?" Ginji whispered.

"I don't know, Ginji! I'm a retriever, not a ghostbuster!" Ban hissed back.

They stared again at the strands of hair moving back and forth, in and out of the wall. It did not help that there was a full moon out, and a wild dog was howling outside.

"Maybe if we pull at it…" Ban said.

"You do it! I can't!" Ginji pleaded.

"Scaredey-cat," the Jagan master growled.

He stood up and tiptoed up to the strands of hair. He placed one hand over the strands, then pulled at them with the other, with some force. But the strands were tough, and he pulled at them again.

"AAAck!" came the scream from beyond the wall, a voice neither male nor female, neither human nor animal. Ban kept his hold on the strands in his surprise, then Ginji fired an electric blast at it and past into the wall. Another unworldly "AAAAck!" from beyond the wall.

"We got her, Ban-chan!" Ginji smiled.

"I don't even know exactly what we got, you ninny!" Ban shouted back at him and ran to the light switch.

He switched all the lights in their room. He found that their wall was actually a door into the next room. He slid open the door fully open, looked straight past, and exclaimed. "You!"

Meanwhile, as Ban kept staring at the opposite room, Ginji sighed with relief. "Finally! That takes care of the ghost! Now we can go to bed!" He smiled with glee and clapped. "No more ghost!"

Ban whacked his friend on the head. "Ginji, you nincompoop, you dimwit, you…..I don't know what else to call you!" He pointed straight at the object Ginji blasted.

Ginji looked, and facefaulted.

Amano Ginji had just electrocuted another customer with straight and black long hair. It was hard to immediately tell, but the customer was decidedly flat-chested under the thin nightgown, a white one that came to the knees. He—for it was a he—looked the two retrievers up and down, then felt his head. His mouth was open and his eyes were rounded, as he kept looking at the blonde young man who just toasted him.

Beside the scorched young man, a taller young man with short hair sat up and felt the area in front of him with outstretched arms. "I smell something burning. What just happened, Kazuki?"

"I'm not sure, either, Jubei," the scorched one muttered. "But it seems I'll need another hot bath tonight."

"Don't tell me," Ban rolled his eyes. "You were at the locker room a few hours ago, wearing that thing you have on, then you went to the baths, but you changed your mind and left without having a bath. Then you just went back and did have that bath an hour later."

"Why, yes, that's right, Midou-san!" Kazuki smiled despite the singed hair. "How did you know?"

Ban rolled his eyes again, sighed, and pointed to his partner with a thumb. "But I claim responsibility for the hair-pulling, um, sorry."

Ginji got closer to Kazuki and shook him hard. "I am so, so, SO SORRY, Kazuki-san! I thought you were the ghost, and you were going to get me…"

"Stop shaking me, Ginji-san! I'll be alright!" Kazuki assured him.

"But what ARE you guys doing here?" Ban asked.

"Rest and relaxation, what else?" Kazuki replied as he checked the damage to his long hair. "We've seen Natsumi already, but we guessed she was with other friends, that's why we didn't expect to see you."

Ginji had shrunk to tare-panda size and sulked in a corner.

Ban shook his head as he looked at his friend at the corner. He then asked Kazuki, "You sure you'll be alright?"

The long-haired young man nodded and grinned. "Nothing a little shampoo and a generous amount of conditioner can't handle."

The Jagan master sweatdropped. "If you say so."

He apologized one last time in behalf of his friend, and closed the door separating the two rooms. He then went to the corner where Ginji still sat in a little ball. "Now, look where your imagination has gotten us. Go on, off to bed with you, you silly sparkplug."

His friend sniffled. "But what if there's really a ghost….what if she's coming to get me…"Ban picked up Ginji by the back of his shirt, and carried him that way back onto the futon. Ginji himself got inside the blanket again, but he still shook his head. "Ban-chan, what if…what if…"

"You're a 5-year-old kid in a 19-year-old body, really," Ban shook his head, and thought deeply for a moment. He then took off the dark glasses, and faced Ginji. "Look at me."

Ginji looked up. "But Ban…."

It was enough. Ban steadied his gaze at Ginji's eyes. In twenty seconds the eyes had closed, in thirty seconds he had gone limp. By sixty seconds, his friend was snoring quietly and peacefully.

"Just one minute."

Ban placed the glasses back over his eyes, and left the bedroom.

He rapped at Natsumi's bedroom door, and did not stop until she acknowledged. "Yes, Ban-san?"

"Natsumi," he said. "We are NOT watching another scary movie with Ginji, ever again!"

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This is the combination of stuff I got out of The Grudge 2 (the original Japanese one, which unfortunately I and my cousins just kept laughing at), the typical "white lady" story, and a story from one of my cousins about a wig. I will TRY to answer your reviews personally. Thanks for reading!


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